This is a photo I snapped of a plant that lines one edge of the garden at the farm house.  I thought, hmmm what the heck is that?  I had a couple guesses, but was wrong.   

Errr! Dadgum aphids! I think having free range chickens has had an adverse effect on my ladybuy and daddy longleg population. Even though you don’t see many ladybugs this time of year, you should see lots of daddy longleg spiders. I’m just not seeing them, and the few I do seem to be servicing the wrong plants. So today I ordered 1500 ladybugs from Gardening Zone.

Now if you have aphids, and chances are you do, they are not going to kill your plant, but their annoying and they suck the juices out of plants and once the plant starts to produce fruit then the little suckers really get busy. So, it’s best, in my opinion to take care of them now. You can use a soap and water solution known as insecticidal soap in garden lingo, but I’d rather take care of them the really natural way using predators. So, get to know your good bugs and encourage them to live in your garden. Here are the little guys that I look for: Ladybugs, Preying Mantis, Lace Wings and Daddy Longlegs. If you know more, tell me, I consider myself a beginning gardener, so I’m all ears to your knowledge.

See the tiny red things by my finger? Those are aphids, they live in clusters on the under side of plants and they love tomato plants as much as I do.